Best humor writing: Looking for a funny read? Here's a good place to start. Shalom Auslander (Hope, A Tragedy), Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel (Lunatics) and Dan Zevin (Dad Gets a Mini-Van) are the finalists for this year's Thurber Prize for American Humor. Check out Elysa Gardner's 3-star review of Hope, A Tragedy, where she praises Auslander's "flamboyantly sardonic, smart-alecky style" that has an "almost unconscious tenderness." For more on Lunatics, check out a Q&A with Barry and watch him read from the book. And learn more about dad/dude/author Dan Zevin and his book Dad Gets a Mini-Van in Bob Minzesheimer's profile of the reluctant suburbanite.

John Hollander dies: Famed poet John Hollander has died at 83 from pulmonary congestion, reports The New York Times. The formalist poet and professor at Yale was considered a virtuoso of poetic forms, and in the obituary, poet J.D. McClatchy writes, "It is said of a man like John Hollander that when he dies it is like the burning of the library at Alexandria."

A TV show, 'Maybe': The CW, the home of Lauren Graham's former TV show Gilmore Girls, has bought the rights to the actress' first novel. Graham will write the script for Someday, Someday, Maybe, and Ellen DeGeneres will produce, Deadline reports. The book is about an aspiring actress trying to make it big in New York City. Read a profile on Graham by USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer and watch her answer five questions about the book.

A romantic retreat: You may soon be able to spend the weekend with your favorite author. NPR's Petra Mayer visits author Debbie Macomber's fan retreat in Nashville, where "400 women gathered for a weekend of tea, knitting and literary friendship" and found a comforting camaraderie between fans of the author's best-selling books. Random House is planning several more similar author retreats, NPR reports.

Big Cornwall deal: Best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell has signed a two-book deal worth at least $10 million with William Morrow, leaving Penguin. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is an effort to get Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series to the big screen.